Ohio State fans have had plenty of time to digest the following fact: Stefon Diggs and Davonte Neal are not part of the 2012 recruiting class and therefore won’t be impacting the Buckeyes’ thin wide receiving corps.

That is the bad news.

And with the departure of DeVier Posey after a suspension-filled senior season, the Buckeyes won’t be able to dial up a wideout named Posey or Dane Sanzenbacher for the first time in five years.

More bad news.

Limited to just three games because of punishments for rules violations, Posey had just 12 catches this past season. Of course, that left him just two of the team lead. Plus, Posey was reliable when on the field throughout his career and figures to be a spotlight draft pick of some NFL team. When he lands in that league he’ll rejoin Sanzenbacher, who had a noteworthy rookie season for the Chicago Bears.

OSU’s next productive tandem is yet to be identified.

The good news, however, is that the unit will have a fresh and somewhat promising outlook with a new position coach and several young players who could elevate in stature.

Chief among them are Devin Smith (6-3, 190) and Evan Spencer (6-1, 190), last year’s hotshot freshmen. The position also now features newly signed talents Frank Epitropoulos (6-3, 197) of nearby Upper Arlington, Ricquan Southward (6-2, 190) of Lakeland (Fla.) HS, and Michael Thomas (6-4, 205) of Fork Union (Va.) Military Academy.

Meanwhile, the returnees carry a bevy of question marks but also possess some skill in their own right.

That group includes junior-to-be Philly Brown (5-11, 182), who tied Smith and tight end Jake Stoneburner atop the 2011 receptions list with 14; sophomore-to-be Verlon Reed (6-0, 195), who tore up his knee last season; and junior-to-be Chris Fields (6-0, 180), who again didn’t meet expectations but did see lots of playing time last season.

The status of lengthy freshman T.Y. Williams (6-5, 228) is up in the air. He did not accompany the team on the trip to the Gator Bowl because of an unspecified violation of NCAA rules but could earn his way back into favor with a new coaching staff in place.

One of the new coaches, of course, is Zach Smith, who inherits the messy situation at receiver. The youngest member of the full-time staff, Smith is a central Ohio native and the grandson of Hall of Famer and former OSU head coach Earle Bruce, which means he is well aware of his surroundings and the immediate expectations to get results.

Still, the 27-year-old said he is in a pinch-me situation.

“I’ll tell you tomorrow when I wake up and I’m not (here) and I’m like, ‘What just happened? It was a sweet dream for a month.’ It’s surreal,” he told SportsRappUp.com. “When you get your dream job or get to the place that you’ve always dreamt of working (at) or playing or coaching or whatever, it’s just a great feeling. But it’s also a feeling of great responsibility.”

Smith is not sure if he’ll coach from the sideline or the press box on game day and said he will be very open to the input of his boss, Urban Meyer, and other staff members. But he knows he’s got a challenge ahead of him and won’t be afraid to show the fire and passion of his grandfather.

When asked if he can be a little “Earle-like,” Smith laughed and said, “Yeah, I think I can get intense every now and then.”

But despite his youth and passion for the game, Smith knows he can’t just shame the receivers into producing. In fact, his first meeting with his position players was very positive and informal.

“I just know them from meeting them and talking to them and the few workouts that we’ve had, but I’m really excited about them,” he said back in January soon after being hired. “They’re a young, talented group that we’re going to get to watch develop over the next eight months and we’ll see what we’ve got. But I’m fired up about it. They’re talented kids, and the best thing that they’ve got going right now is they’re young and they have experience.

“Usually, you’re walking into a situation with a freshman and a sophomore that have watched other guys play and they’re sitting there like, ‘Man, I wonder what that’s like.’ Now, we’re walking into a situation where the kid already knows, and he’s played in 12 games or 10 games or however many. So when he walks into Ohio Stadium with 110,000 people, it’s not his first rodeo.”

With Posey serving a pair of five-game suspensions, Brown, Fields and Smith either started or rotated into the offense with regularity. Also, Reed caught nine balls in seven games before his injury and hinted at playmaking ability. In fact, his yards-per-catch average of 14.7 ranked third on the team behind those of Spencer (26.0) and Smith (21.0).

So Smith’s point is well-taken. Even with limited roles in a pedestrian offense, the returning wide receivers were involved in lots of snaps last year and did everything from drop passes to haul in crowd-bursting touchdowns.

“I know there’s been a lot of criticism on the group from this past season, but they had a lot of freshmen and sophomores, and you don’t see that a lot of places,” Smith said. “And when you do, you expect production or else they shouldn’t be on the field. So that’s what we’re going to go forward with. They’re a talented group and they’re great kids who will work hard, so I think we’ve got a shot.”

Smith arrived to OSU from Temple, where he served as wide receivers coach and special teams coordinator for coach Steve Addazio. In 2010, he held the same role for Marshall and helped develop All-Conference USA receiver Aaron Dobson.

Smith played high school ball on Columbus’ northwest side for Dublin Coffman and decided to walk on to the football team at Bowling Green to learn from Meyer, who was the head coach at the time. In 2005, he rejoined his mentor as a graduate assistant and quality control coach and stayed for four years. In that time, Smith finished up his degree at UF and helped instruct talents such as Percy Harvin, Louis Murphy and Aaron Hernandez.

Meyer shifted last year’s receivers coach, Stan Drayton, to similar duties with the running backs and hired Smith the week of Christmas. He extended the formal offer to Smith in front of his family, including Earle Bruce, at the wake for Jean Bruce – his grandmother and Earle’s wife of 56 years.

As one might imagine, it was a bittersweet moment, in part because Jean followed Smith’s career so closely.

Meyer was clear to point out that the hiring of Smith was for professional reasons.

“I know what a quality coach Zach is,” Meyer said. “He knows my system inside and out and he teaches the system the way I want it to be taught.”

Still, the nearly lifelong connection Smith has to Meyer can’t be underplayed. When Meyer was a graduate assistant at Ohio State, Smith was 3 years old and his mother, Lynn, used to bring young Zach by practice from time to time to keep her dad cheerful.

Over the years, Smith has gotten to know the Meyer who is just beginning to acquaint himself with the modern-day Buckeye Nation.

“He loves the game so much and he’s so passionate about it, you’re going to see an aggressive, intense guy on the sidelines – a guy that when you win a game he’s really excited because he puts everything he has into it,” Smith said. “So the payout is just that much greater for him. What stands out is his intensity. It’s not like some guys that love the game but they just kind of stand there. You’re going to see it.”

And Smith plans to tap into that aura, the honeymoon period surrounding the new staff and the time-tested tradition of Ohio State football when he hits the recruiting trail.

“There’s not a state like it in the country where kids grow up loving a university more than in this state,” he said. “These kids, from the time they’re born that’s all they know. So when Ohio State comes and wants to recruit them and offers a scholarship, it holds a greater weight because their whole life that’s been the dream.”

Some of those wide-eyed hopefuls are now Buckeyes and the property of Smith – or at least a ball of clay for him to help mold.

But he wants to take the communal approach in shaping the outlook at wide receiver.

“My assessment right now is we are an aligned staff,” he said. “We’re nine guys with no egos involved who are just working for one thing, and that’s to put success on the field and have successful kids off the field.

“I’ve got an idea of what could be better or maybe needs changed, but I really won’t until we sit down and put seven guys’ eyes or nine guys’ eyes on it and really study it and talk about it. And that’s what we’ll do, we’ll discuss it as a staff.”